Wanting a 2tb in my early 2011 MBP in optibay drive

[steve1960]

That's interesting because on OWC's web site they state that after testing themselves Apple's hardware is too unreliable to run 6Gbps from the Optibay even if the Mac hardware reports it is capable of doing it.

So do we assume it's marginal and some Mac's work just fine and others don't?

 

[rainking]

also, OP, after doing that, be sure to format the drive...go to partition page in disk utility, format as Mac OS Extended (journaled), click on "options" under the partition layout, be sure "GUID Partition Table" is checked before installing OS X.

Thanks; I'll give that a try.

I've been running a Seagate M9T in my early 2011 for four months now and haven't had a single issue. I can confirm that it runs at 6Gbps and is recognized fully.

Interesting. What optibay drive you using?

 

[niteflyr]

I believe satinsilverem2 has the 13" 2011 MBP which apparently doesn't have the same issues as the 15" and 17" models with SATA III drives in optibay.

 

[benji888]

I believe satinsilverem2 has the 13" 2011 MBP which apparently doesn't have the same issues as the 15" and 17" models with SATA III drives in optibay.

Yes, that is true, from what I've read, some, not all, early 2011 13" MBPs do not have the issue.

 

[benji888]

That's interesting because on OWC's web site they state that after testing themselves Apple's hardware is too unreliable to run 6Gbps from the Optibay even if the Mac hardware reports it is capable of doing it.

So do we assume it's marginal and some Mac's work just fine and others don't?

It's a glitch, Apple assumed no one would put anything else in the optibay but a SATA I/1.5G optical drive, so, it's SATA III/6G hardware that is not fully enabled or a bottleneck between that and actual connection. I'm not enough of a techie to know the exact details.

What the issue is, is that, a drive might appear at first to run at 6G, but, it then stops running. There may be some drives made by some manufacturers at some point in time that would go into a SATA II/3G mode, but, I doubt these models are still around.

The only solution for these MBPs is to use a drive that has firmware set to run at Max. SATA II/3G in the optibay, these run fine at full SATA II/3G speeds.

I'm pretty sure the next update to these MBPs did not have this issue (late 2011)

 

[satinsilverem2]

Thanks; I'll give that a try.



Interesting. What optibay drive you using?

Im using the OWC Data Doubler. My SSD is in the HDD location and the HDD is in the Data Doubler

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I believe satinsilverem2 has the 13" 2011 MBP which apparently doesn't have the same issues as the 15" and 17" models with SATA III drives in optibay.

I do have the 13 inch. I thought all of the 2011's had the issue?

 

[rmackner]

My stock 750gb drive that I installed in my optibay slot is near full and wanting to upgrade it to the biggest drive I can get. I purchased this external drive (link below) from amazon and I opened it up and installed the disk. At first, I thought everything was working good but as soon as my computer went to sleep, it would eject it. Only way to mount it again was to reboot the machine. I put the stock drive back on it works perfect. Drive also works perfect when used as intended, external drive via USB. It doesn't get ejected. I've come to the following conclusions and hoping someone can confirm/deny. 1. There's a maxed capacity on the optibay drive. 2. Drive error (physical error) or 3. Firmware hard drive issue or 4. my optibay drive sucks. Thoughts? Any 2tb 2.5" hard drive recommendation?

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expan...e=UTF8&qid=1413819375&sr=8-2&keywords=2.5+2tb

BTW, the drive in the above link is the same as this one: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Momen...e=UTF8&qid=1413819375&sr=8-1&keywords=2.5+2tb

Having that much data on a spinning disc in a mobile device seems like disaster waiting to happen. Why not get a SSD for the MBP then a get a 2TB back up drive.